Blue Ridge Motorcycling magazine

Here's help making my daydream come true.

 Inside every motorcycle rider's helmet is his head, and inside his head is his brain, and inside his brain is probably a daydream. 

For some, the dream might be that all this traffic and all these stop lights would vanish, to be replaced by an open road. 

My personal daydream imagines someday riding the Blue Ridge Parkway. It's a National Parkway that runs almost 500 miles through the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina and Virginia. 

Scenic, curvy, and — sweetest of all in my day dreams — limited to 45 mph the whole way. That's the perfect cruising speed for my 1999 Royal Enfield, and my 75-year-old reflexes. 

I may never make the trip, but I can dream. Recently, I discovered that I could read about the region, too, in Blue Ridge Motorcycling, a magazine devoted to my daydream. 

I subscribed ($19.95), not expecting much. How can a glossy magazine devoted to activities centered on such a short section of road survive?

"We cover the entire Blue Ridge Mountains, not just the parkway," editor-in-chief Michael E. Gouge replied to that question, in an email." He defined this in his editor's column in the Spring 2026 edition:

"We cover the top of Georgia and Alabama, the Carolinas, East Tennessee and Virginia and up into the wilds of West Virginia."

Launched 10 years ago, the magazine is published four times a year. Gouge acknowledges that it's an unusual print product.

"During the past 10 years, many motorcycle publications have switched to online-only versions or ceased to exist. Print magazines are becoming a niche luxury item, much like vinyl records, wristwatches and other artifacts born in a distant decade. All these examples still survive due to a loyal fanbase," he wrote.

The 52-page Winter 2025 magazine I received is glossy and colorful. The required Postal Service Form 3526 puts circulation at just over 5,000 copies.

The printed magazine is just one part of an eco-system devoted to riding the Blue Ridge. There's a website, of course. A newsletter. A Facebook page. A YouTube channel.

The newest video on the YouTube channel is two years old. But the website, Facebook page and the newsletter appear to offer fresh content.

The pictures are (much) bigger in the print magazine and I'd rather turn pages than squint over my keyboard.

Articles in the Winter, 2025 edition included a restaurant recommendation, a hidden lodge to consider, two descriptions of routes to explore, a consideration of going off-road, a swap meet report, a nostalgic feature on rider John Penton ("the father of KTM in America"), the experience of a couple eloping on a motorcycle, and a tale of a solo rider taking the road to West Virginia.

The magazine included intriguing advertisements from destinations in the region, including offers of free travel information, maps to scenic back roads, and route guides from Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, Appalachian Backroads, and even Zanesville, Ohio.

Editor-in-chief Gouge is a journalism educator at the University of North Carolina, Asheville. In February he was named a 2026 Faculty Champion by the Center for Community News (CCN) at the University of Vermont, "recognizing his leadership in preparing the next generation of journalists while expanding access to reliable local news in Western North Carolina."

As a university teacher, magazine editor, travel writer, and motorcyclist, Prof. Gouge probably has daydreams of his own.

They probably include having enough time in the day to get it all done. 

My own career in community journalism left me, in retirement, still awakening from nightmares about missing deadline. I'd rather dream about the Blue Ridge.

In his "Notes From the Road" column in my copy of Blue Ridge Motorcycling, Gouge writes "Any excuse to ride on a beautiful day is justifiable in my experience."

I know what he means.